From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Investigation into various interior heating systems for cars used in the U.S.A., with a focus on a Packard system.
| Identifier | WestWitteringFiles\V\December1930-February1931\ Scan121 | |
| Date | 8th January 1931 | |
| To R.{Sir Henry Royce} From Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} c. to SS.{S. Smith} Wor.{Arthur Wormald - General Works Manager} c. to E.{Mr Elliott - Chief Engineer} Da.{Bernard Day - Chassis Design} c. to By.{R.W. Bailey - Chief Engineer} ORIGINAL X4300, INTERIOR HEATING OF CARS. When I was at Springfield I received a cable from Conduit Street asking me to investigate the interior heaters they are using on cars in U.S.A. It is obvious that with the low temperatures in U.S.A. the problem of keeping the interior of a car warm is much more acute than it is here. Most of the taxi-cabs in the winter time run about with a ticket on them to denote that they have interior heating. One soon gets into the habit of avoiding those which have not this ticket displayed. The standardised method of interior heating which they are now using is that they have a little electric motor driving a fan which blows air over the exhaust pipes and then blows it into the car, or they take a shunt off the water system and run it through a small radiator and use a small fan to blow air through this radiator and then into the car. The water heated one is the one which is most generally used on expensive cars. The best example I saw was on a Packard car, which had a small radiator and fan arranged under the driver's seat with ducts to blow the warm air into both front and rear compartments. The old method of heating the car by means of an exhaust heated hot plate was undoubtedly defective, but these later schemes of blowing clean warm air into the car give a very excellent result. It all means added complication but if a car is being used in zero weather it is not likely that owners will sit and freeze when there are available schemes of interior heating. I arranged for a sample of the heater which I saw on the Packard to be sent over. The argument they have for interior heating is that there is just as much reason for the interior of an automobile to be heated as there is a railway train. The electric driven fan will of course mean extra work on generator. Hs.{Lord Ernest Hives - Chair} | ||